A Thousand Suns
A Thousand Suns is the fourth studio album released by American rock band Linkin Park. The album was released on September 14, 2010 in the United States of America, September 13, 2010 in the United Kingdom and New Zealand, September 10, 2010 in Germany, and September 15, 2010 in Japan, China, and India. A Thousand Suns+, the video album for A Thousand Suns, was also released in 2010, taking place at a concert in Madrid, performing songs from their three previous studio albums. Los Angeles musical group Vitamin String Quartet released a [[Vitamin String Quartet Performs Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns|String Quartet Tribute performance of A Thousand Suns '']]under Vitamin Records. Editions linkinpark.com had six exclusive pre-order deals available. # The ''Digital Edition which included an MP3 download of the album on the day of release. # The Standard Edition enabled an MP3 download of the album on the day of release plus a physical copy. # The CD + DVD Set includes a high quality MP3 download of A Thousand Suns on the day of it's release and a holographic inverted digipak CD/DVD release which includes the documentary Meeting of A Thousand Suns. # The Deluxe Fan Edition Box Set includes a high quality MP3 download of A Thousand Suns on the day of it's release, a CD digipak of A Thousand Suns, it spread across two 12" vinyls, a DVD digipak of the Meeting of A Thousand Suns documentary, a hardcover art book and a poster all presented in a custom hinged box. # The Limited Edition Skate Deck Pack included a physical copy of the album and a limited edition skate deck signed by all members of the band. # The Exclusive T-shirt Pack included a pre-order only t-shirt with a physical release. An option for purchasing everything ran $230, not including shipping. The following editions were not available through the LinkinPark.com pre-order. # The iTunes Deluxe Edition, which offers a high quality download of "Blackbirds" as a bonus track. # The Best Buy Edition, which will also have NoBraiN's remix of "The Catalyst" as a bonus track. Promotion Album Name and Release Promotion for the album started in June of 2010 in the form of puzzles put onto Linkin Park's website, revealing the album title, the title of the first single, "The Catalyst", and their release dates. On July 8 after much of the community had figured out the puzzle indicating the release date, Mike Shinoda made an official announcement on his website stating the release date on A Thousand Suns being September 14, 2010. It Began with "The Catalyst"... Linkin Park teamed up with Indaba Music and MySpace Music to present their fans with, what was coined, a premix contest, titled "Linkin Park: Featuring You", where fans were given audio stems to the single "The Catalyst" prior to it's release and asked to make a remix from what they were given. The contest ran from July 9, 2010 until July 25, 2010. The winner of the contest was NoBraiN, whose remix consequently was put on the Best Buy edition of A Thousand Suns. On August 2, "The Catalyst" was released as the album's first single, in which its physical disc was released on August 24. The song's music video had it's official premiere on MTV on August 26. LPTV episodes began to air on YouTube and on the Linkin Park Media Player on linkinpark.com featuring Chester Bennington recording vocals for "The Catalyst". A later LPTV episode showed Mike Shinoda informing NoBraiN as the winner of the "Linkin Park: Featuring You" contest. On linkinpark.com, as a ploy to add more people to their emailing list, two "Linkin Park: Featuring You" finalist entry remixes were offered in exchange for an email address. The two remixes were remixed by illAudio and Digitalomat. "The Catalyst" saw its live debut at the MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. "Wretches and Kings" was released to anyone who had pre-ordered A Thousand Suns via linkinpark.com on September 2, a month after the release of "The Catalyst". Additionally, the general public could stream the song on Noisecreep. Linkin Park also publicized two lyric videos - "Blackout" (Keaton Hashimoto) and "Burning in the Skies" (Xefuzion), along with their own for "The Catalyst" and "Waiting for the End" as their next singles. On September 11, 2010, a full audio track of "A Thousand Suns: The Full Experience" was available on Linkin Park's official MySpace page. Promotion Touring and Listening Event Also during the month of August, Dave Farrell and Mike Shinoda toured parts of Europe holding listening parties for a small group to attend and give feedback on the new album. Listening parties were also held in Los Angeles. The groups that attended the listening parties were not only the first group of people in the world to hear A Thousand Suns but were also presented with Linkin Park gift bags containing merchandise from the band. Shinoda exclusively told twenty LPU members that they could blog about the songs, if they wished to. The Debut Listening Event and Laser Light Exhibition was held on September 7th in Hollywood exclusively invitation only for Linkin Park Underground members. The band made an appearance after the Laser Light Exhibition had ended and did a question and answer session with the members of the audience that appeared at the event. Linkin Park will celebrate the release of A Thousand Suns by playing the album in it's entirety for the first time at a rare album release concert, to be held at the Best Buy Theater in New York on September 14. The event has already sold out. Interviews Add all the interviews, link-ups here, in chronological order. ;September 22, 2010 * Chester Bennington, interviewed by Nicole Powers, suicidegirls.com * Bennington talks about A Thousand Suns, the US/Canada tour beginning in January, adding "When They Come for Me" to the set-list in the upcoming tour where he will be playing percussion and singing for the song, the VMA performance, what songs mean the most to him from A Thousand Suns and much more in this really open, in-depth interview with Streetdate. Watch here. * Mike is interviewed on Ripitup , where he discusses the speeches on A Thousand Suns, swearing on the cunt, and many other things. * Mike and Chester interviewed on SXM Octane, conducted by Kayla Riley. The audio interview can be heard here. ;September 23, 2010 * The full interview from "A Different Spin with Mark Hoppus" with Chester and Rob of Linkin Park that aired on FUSE today is now available to watch. * Chester's video interview with 101.9RXP * Mike's interview with Noisecreep. * Mike's interview with Examiner. ;September 29, 2010 * Linkin Park discuss A Thousand Suns in extensive detail in an interview with Noisecreep, which you can read or watch in two parts. Miscellaneous Facts * The album title, the title of the first single ("The Catalyst") and its premiere date were revealed on July 8, 2010. * It was during the pre-ATS era that Linkin Park reached 8,000,000 fans on Facebook. July 15, 2010. * The artwork for "The Catalyst" was revealed on July 17, 2010. * The album cover went public on July 22, 2010. * Information about the various editions of the album, and pre-order went online on July 23, 2010. * The track list sprung up on July 24, 2010. * Mike and Phoenix went to Germany to begin their short promotional tour for A Thousand Suns on August 17, 2010. Track Listing Bonus Tracks (iTunes Edition) Bonus Tracks (Japanese Edition) Bonus Tracks (2013 iTunes Deluxe Edition) An iTunes Deluxe Editon of A Thousand Suns was released in 2013 through iTunes. ''A Thousand Suns: Live Around the World'' A Thousand Suns: Live Around the World was released on June 19, 2012, after A Thousand Suns was released two years earlier. Personnel *Chester Bennington - lead vocals, rhythm guitarist on "Iridescent" *Rob Bourdon - drums, percussion, backing vocals *Brad Delson - lead guitars, backing vocals *Dave Farrell - bass guitars, backing vocals *Joe Hahn - turntables, synthesizers, backing vocals *Mike Shinoda - co-lead vocals, emcee, rhythm guitars, keyboards External Link www.linkinpark.com/lpuCategory:Linkin Park Discography